19 Dec The Power of Circles
The Power of Circles
The edition is an invitation to flow between different circles and their meaning, to explore the intimate relationship between the cyclic lessons of history and the cycle of life itself. Circular movement is also art of what we are: a round-the-clock business, more and more committed to feeding virtuous circles every day.
Living life is a great deal about learning how to open and close cycles better and better. Alexandre Soares dos Santos, my father, passed away last August and that means the unavoidable end of a very important cycle for us. He led Jerónimo Martins for more than 45 years and we owe to his very charismatic and strong leadership our ambition for continuous growth and our transformation from a medium Portuguese Company to an international Group with operations in two continents.
Being his son and the President of this Group, I now feel the increased responsibility of being the stronger link in the chain of our Family’s values, which have been shaping this Company’s culture for nearly 100 years: entrepreneurship, meritocracy, social and environmental consciousness and commitment. True leaders know that these are the chains that can never be broken. That the closing of a cycle must always be accompanied by the opening of a new one. The most common visual representation of a cycle is the circle. And this is how we picked the central theme of this Feed’s issue.
Circular movement is also part of what we are: a round-the-clock business, more and more committed to feeding virtuous circles every day.
The circular form is present in many aspects of our lives, whether in nature, in products we use in our everyday life or in the routines and rituals that are somehow repeated or reinvented. The circle brings us also a symbolic dimension associated to an ideal of harmony, completeness and perfection (the mandala in the cover of this magazine is a representation of such symbolism, an expression of the various layers in each one’s life, from what is more grounded to what is spiritual). This issue is an invitation to flow between different circles and their meaning, to explore the intimate relationship between the cyclic lessons of history and the cycle of life itself.
We look into the mystical circular hole that exists in the middle of the Colombian Amazon jungle, we seek the source of inspiration of Maestro Fernando Botero for his sculptures and paintings, we discover the renewed interest in a product fallen into disuse – the vinyl record – and its second life in Biedronka stores. With the story of our fresh milk in Portugal we also explain how we are closing the loop between sustainability and arriving quickly at consumers’ tables. In food retail and in the fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG) industry in general we know how much we depend on our ability to keep the wheel spinning and the products rotating. So circular movement is also part of what we are: a round-the-clock business, more and more committed to feeding virtuous circles every day.